to wonder what is happening to London!?

[AisforAria]

Anyone else worried about the sudden rise in acid attacks, moped thieves etc? It feels a bit like the rule of law is breaking down. All this simmering violence - London feels really alien and hostile these days.

I live in London and work here. Yes, there is always a need to be vigilant, as there is in all cities. It's not panic stations.

I don't feel that there has been a sudden rise in violent crime, no. There are always incidents of some kind or another. I certainly don't feel that the rule of law is breaking down!

I don't feel that there has been a sudden rise in violent crime, no. There are always incidents of some kind or another. I certainly don't feel that the rule of law is breaking down!

I feel exactly the same.

I suspect it's the law of unintended consequences.

Metal detectors and higher penalties for carrying a knife have made certain people look elsewhere for a different sort of weapon.

You don't get away with the papers and the government purposely trying to divide the country scapegoat certain communities for years and enforce your ideological austerity programme without some sort of call out both economically and socially.

The country is more divided than it ever has been. We have politicians like Farage and hate preachers like Hopkins fuelling hatred, encouraging attacks. Behaviour has consequences.

Absolutely zero sense of that on the ground, fortunately. It's lovely and sunny, school's are breaking up. It's life as normal.

I'm usually not concerned about this stuff but yes I'm very concerned about this. There definitely is a rise in violent crime in my area. There's also a massive problem with moped related crime - muggings, random attacks targeting mums with kids in the car, car theft - where I live which is making me not want to go out at night.

Was up in London at the weekend and it was a lovely happy atmosphere, everyone mixing and enjoying life. There are always going to be incidents when there are millions of people. The media focus on those and that makes it feel worse than it really is.

The only thing that has changed is the media. They report everything, it's always happened

London is the same as ever. Only difference is that the media are focussing on that particular type of crime. Next week it will be something else.

Metal detectors and higher penalties for carrying a knife have made certain people look elsewhere for a different sort of weapon.

This is a good point. But really - acid?!? I think the fact that it's often relatively young men charged with these crimes is significant; they really have no clue what they're doing.

(I realise that books could be written about acid as a weapon, and I'm focusing on just a very small recent aspect.)

Back in the 1840s there was a fear of garrotting. In the 1950s it was razor gangs. There's always something. Not particularly worrying me though.

There has been a considerable increase in knife crime this year.

Moped mugging she have received a lot of coverage, as has the newish phenomenon of acid attacks. I'm kind of assuming that these have increased (because base-line was low)

And more crimes in daylight.

The media report on everything these days. They used to just fill a paper but now they are filling a paper, a website and 24 hour news channels.

Certain papers make things worse because they are constantly looking for anything to spin in order to promote their hate filled agenda.

squirm I saw a recent graph showing a considerable increase in the past couple of years.

Obviously still a very low incidence relative to population.

I don't think it is London, specifically, I think it is human nature. A certain proportion of people are violent thugs. We have a higher population density than average in London, hence more violent thugs per square mile than less dense areas.

Absolutely zero sense of that on the ground, fortunately. It's lovely and sunny, school's are breaking up. It's life as normal.

This.

Its sunny. People are happy. Moped drivers getting acid thrown in their faces, whilst horrific, isn't affecting 99.999999999% of the population.

the media seem to have fads about what they report. This week it's acid attacks, next week it could've knife crime. I'm sure knife/gun/acid/burglary crime is happening all the time, but it's whether the media report it or not.

OP do you work in London every day or live in London?

Sorry hit send too soon.

Where are you when you feel like this?

Am absolutely flabbergasted that the reporting of acid attacks is seen as a 'media fad'.
Would you rather they went unreported then ?

Flyinggeese - Yes I live/work in London.

Of course it's a media fad tears, chemical attacks and deliberate burns are nothing new in any big city.

Lots of things aren't reported, if they're reporting acid attacks they're not reporting something else.

Whereabouts do you live, Aria?

X-post with FlyingGeese.